Urban Risk

The making of the Hyogo2 disaster prevention treaty

JOHANNESBURG, 17 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - A month after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in December 2004, affecting millions, 168 countries signed on to a 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards. Yet the plan, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015, focused primarily on “what to do to prevent disasters, but not enough on how to implement it,” says Neil McFarlane, chief coordinator and head of all regional programmes at the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). full report

Humanitarian intervention in violence-hit slums - from whether to how

 RIO DE JANEIRO, 15 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - In a move that experts say could open the door to a more robust aid response to chronic violence in urban areas, the European Commission’s humanitarian aid arm, ECHO, has approved 2 million euro in funding for interventions in cases of violence outside of conventional war in Central America and Mexico until the end of 2014. If large-scale aid work in so-called 'other situations of violence' is the way of the future, there are certain things humanitarian workers will have to keep in mind. full report

The price of fear

 RIO DE JANEIRO, 15 May 2013 (IRIN Global) - In slums where killings, rape, kidnappings and other criminal violence are commonplace, say researchers, lives and livelihoods are hampered by a force that is tough to measure: Fear. full report

Boko Haram attacks hit school attendance in Borno State

 KANO, NIGERIA, 14 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Around 15,000 children in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, have stopped attending classes since February 2013, according to a Borno State Ministry of Education official who preferred anonymity, as Boko Haram extremists continue a wave of attacks on state schools. full report

Quelling xenophobia in South Africa's townships

 PHILIPPI, 14 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - This week marks five years since tensions between foreigners and South Africans living in impoverished communities across the country erupted in xenophobic violence, leaving more than 60 people dead and tens of thousands displaced, their homes and businesses robbed and abandoned. full report

Marshalling smartphones, gravediggers to fight dengue in Pakistan

 LAHORE, 10 May 2013 (IRIN Asia) - On the frontline in the fight against dengue fever in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, the authorities have a sharp eye for spare car tyres. full report

Hunger projects stalled in Guinea-Bissau

 BISSAU/DAKAR, 9 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - The World Food Programme (WFP) has not received the money it needs to run basic nutrition and food security schemes in Guinea-Bissau, leaving projects in jeopardy or at a standstill. full report

Displaced still homeless after clashes in Baga, Nigeria

 BAGA,NIGERIA, 7 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Thousands of residents of Baga in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, remain displaced for fear of further clashes breaking out between radical Islamist group Boko Haram and troops from the Nigeria-Niger-Chad Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF). A reported 187 people died in the clashes on 16 and 17 April. full report

Countering the radicalization of Kenya's youth

 NAIROBI, 6 May 2013 (IRIN Africa) - Unemployment, poverty and political marginalization are contributing to the Islamic radicalization of Kenya's youth, a situation experts say must be addressed through economic empowerment and inclusive policies. full report

Iraq 10 years on: the humanitarian impact

 BAGHDAD/DUBAI, 23 April 2013 (IRIN Middle East) - Ten years after the toppling of Iraq’s former leader Saddam Hussein, human development statistics – flawed as they are – paint a complex portrait of a country that has seen improvement over the last decade, but is still largely struggling. full report

read more stories on Urban Risk